Of the 67 people on board Embraer 190, 38 were killed and the cause of the accident is under investigation.

Azerbaijan A day of mourning is being held for the victims of an incident Air crash kills 38 people. At least 29 people have survived a fatal crash on Christmas Day.

Azerbaijan held a national moment of silence on Thursday, flags were lowered, traffic stopped at midday and ships and trains were signaled across the country.

Earlier, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev declared Thursday a day of mourning and canceled a planned visit to Russia to attend an informal summit of the Commonwealth of Former Soviet States (CIS).

Aliyev’s office said the president “ordered immediate emergency measures to investigate the cause of the disaster.”

A passenger plane belonging to the country’s flag carrier crashed near the city of Aktau in western Kazakhstan on Wednesday.

The Embraer 190 plane was supposed to be flying northwest from Azerbaijan’s capital Baku to the city of Grozny in Chechnya in southern Russia, but it veered off course and flew over the Caspian Sea.

Speculations on the cause

An investigation into the cause of the crash is ongoing, but some aviation and military experts say the plane may have been accidentally shot It came under attack from Russian air defenses as it flew over an area where Ukrainian drone activity was reported.

Al Jazeera could not independently verify these claims.

At a news conference on Wednesday, President Aliyev said it was too early to determine the cause of the crash, but noted that weather conditions forced the plane to change its planned route.

“The information I received is that due to worsening weather conditions, the plane changed its route between Baku and Grozny and flew to Aktau Airport, but crashed on landing,” he said.

According to Kazakhstan officials, the 67 people on board included 42 citizens of Azerbaijan, 16 citizens of Russia, 6 citizens of Kazakhstan and 3 citizens of Kyrgyzstan. Five of them were crew members.

Azerbaijan Airlines initially said the plane flew over a flock of birds before retracting its statement.

According to Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Health, 11 of the injured are receiving treatment in intensive care units. Azerbaijan’s state news agency Azertac reported that 12 survivors were being flown to Azerbaijan.

Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke with Aliyev by phone and “expressed condolences over the crash,” his spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a news conference express.

Putin later said at the opening of the CIS leaders’ meeting in St. Petersburg that Russia’s Emergencies Ministry had sent medical personnel and other equipment to Aktau.